John Tesh | OKC Topic Thunder

#2 San Antonio Spurs (8-3) vs. #1 Oklahoma City Thunder (8-0)
When: Monday, 18 May 2026 at 7:30pm CST
Where: Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, OK
TV: NBC/Peacock
Playoff Offensive Rating (of the remaining playoff teams): SAS: 117.3 (3rd) / OKC: 126.3 (1st)
Playoff Defensive Rating (of the remaining playoff teams): SAS: 102.2 (1st) / OKC: 109.3 (3rd)
Playoff Net Rating (of the remaining playoff teams): SAS: 15.2 (3rd) / OKC: 17.0 (2nd)
Series Record: 0-0

The Tip-Off

Inevitabilities in life: taxes, death, and the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs meeting in the 2026 Western Conference Finals. These two freight trains have been on a collision course since it became evident that San Antonio had jumped into a Mario warp pipe and skipped from level 2 to level 8 on the development curve. Having a generational talent like Victor Wembanyama will allow you to do that. Then came the five meetings this year between these two teams and the narrative that San Antonio is probably the best equipped team to knock off the champs in the playoff series, and you get to where we are now. First to four for Western Conference supremacy and a trip to the NBA Finals. ANNNNDDD….it’s on NBC. Cue the music, John Tesh.

Season Series

Game 1 – Dec. 13th (San Antonio won 111-109) – This was the NBA Cup semifinals in Las Vegas, NV. A back and forth affair in the 4th quarter. San Antonio hit just enough more shots late in the game to keep OKC at bay and hold on to a 2-point victory. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 29 points and 5 assists, but also had 5 turnovers and shot 1-7 from deep. San Antonio, on the over hand, had four players with at least 22 points, led by Devin Vessell.

Game 2 – Dec. 23rd (San Antonio won 130-110) – OKC held a 2-point lead at halftime and then proceeded to get blown out 72-50 in the 2nd half. The Spurs were the aggressors, as evidenced by the disparity in free throw attempts (24-7), forced turnovers (15-9), and points in the paint (60-48). SGA led the way again with 33 points, with Jalen Williams chipping in with 17 points. San Antonio was led by Keldon Johnson (25 points) and Steph Castle (24 points).

Game 3 – Dec. 25th (San Antonio won 117-102) – Definitely, the “oh shit” moment for the Thunder. OKC finally got a Christmas game at home and came out and laid an egg against the Spurs. OKC shot 39% from the field and struggled to consistently get stops on the defensive end. The flashpoint in this game was Alex Caruso shooting 2-12 from deep (but starting off 0-9 before finally seeing one go through late in the 3rd quarter). De’Aaron Fox led the way for San Antonio with 29 points with Wembanyama contributing with 19 points and 11 rebounds. SGA scored 22 points on 7/19 shooting, while Isaiah Hartenstein had 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Game 4 – Jan. 13th (OKC won 119-98) – The “get back” game for the Thunder. Were more the aggressors in this one, holding San Antonio to 40% shooting from the field and winning the points in the paint battle, 56-40. OKC used a huge third quarter that saw them turn a 3-point halftime lead into a 19-point lead heading into the fourth. OKC was led by SGA with 34 points and Dub with 20 points. Steph Castle had 20 points and Wemby had 17 and 7 for the Spurs.

Game 5 – Feb. 4th (San Antonio won 116-106) – The “scheduled loss” game for OKC. Second night of a back to back. Third game in four nights. And, with four previous games against the Spurs, the team probably saw this as an opportunity to see if there was something unconventional that could be discovered in this game. What many thought would be a blow-out going away turned into a very competitive game that saw the Spurs starters play until the last minute of the game. OKC was led by Kenrich Williams (25 points and 9 rebounds), Jaylin Williams (24 points and 12 rebounds), and Aaron Wiggins (20 points). The Spurs were led by Keldon Johnson (25 points) and Wembanyama (22 points and 14 rebounds).

Betting Info, presented by FanDuel

Line: OKC -6.5
O/U: 221.5

Injury Report

OKC

Thomas Sorber – OFS (knee/ACL)

SAS

De’Aaron Fox – Questionable (ankle)
Luke Kornet – Questionable (foot)

Five Big Things

Healthy J-Dub – One of the biggest X-factors for OKC is whether they’ll get a healthy Jalen Williams for the series. In the regular season games, Williams played in the four consequential games for OKC but was never fully healthy. He was still recovering from his offseason wrist surgery and was working his way back during all four of those Spurs games. In that quartet of games, Dub averaged 16.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.3 turnovers, and 2.5 steals with 44/36/67 shooting splits. While those numbers look okay, they pale in comparison to what an healthy, efficient Dub stat-line would look like. If San Antonio is going to put full effort into stopping SGA, having a healthy Dub is necessary for OKC to continuously pressure the Spurs defense.
Chet’s mindset – For a player that was an All-Star and will likely be on one of the All-NBA teams, Holmgren’s four games against San Antonio were as forgettable as they come. The Thunder big man averaged 10.5 points and 8 rebounds on 39/20/80 shooting splits. For OKC to be successful in this series, they need Holmgren to be effective out there. Someone that makes San Antonio pay as a release valve and someone the Spurs needs to pay attention to. Too many times in those four San Antonio games, Holmgren was just a body out there, allowing the Spurs to load up in the paint and forcing OKC to be primarily a jump-shooting team. He doesn’t necessarily need to win every battle against Wembanyama, but he does need leave his imprint on every game.
Ajay Mitchell – Mitchell played in only one of the five games against San Antonio this season. Ironically, it was the game where OKC won. As Mitchell’s star has grown throughout these playoffs, he becomes the unknown factor in this series against the Spurs. Being that secondary/tertiary ball-handler is something OKC did not have in most of the games against San Antonio this season and something the Spurs haven’t seen a ton of in these playoffs. Portland plays similarly to OKC with Deni Avdija being the offensive engine, but Scoot Henderson and Jrue Holiday aren’t necessarily on the level of Dub and Ajay Mitchell. Minnesota had an Anthony Edwards at about 80% and Ayo Dosunmu and Julius Randle, two players who are primarily attackers and not play-makers.
Jared McCain – Can McCain play in this series? He’d definitely be a weapon as a floor spacer, but can he hang defensively with San Antonio’s guard attack. Is it a short leash situation where if the shot is falling, you take the defensive liability? McCain was obtained on February 3rd and didn’t play in the final meeting of the season between OKC and the Spurs. Like Mitchell, could McCain’s addition into the rotation provide a look the Spurs haven’t seen before from OKC?
Turning Castle over – If there is a guard the Thunder could target with defensive pressure, it could be Steph Castle. The 2nd-year guard is averaging 3.1 turnovers per game in the playoffs, which is most on the team. His physicality lends itself to committing offensive fouls and being a bit careless with the ball at times. If the Thunder want to infuse any of their DNA into this series, it’s going to start on the defensive end with turning turnovers into points. They are first in the league this postseason in that category, scoring 22.9 points per game off turnovers.

In watching some of the pointless Occupy ____(insert city)____ protests that have gone on for the past month and a half, I have sometimes wondered what it would look like if NBA fans staged their own Occupy NBA protest during the lockout. Would we march at the hotel that the players’ union and owners were meeting at in New York? Or at NBA HQ in New York? Or at the court house in Minnesota where the anti-trust lawsuits would be taking place at? Instead of hippies and out of work yuppies, I could see a whole bunch of middle-aged men with their basketball jerseys on, dribbling basketballs throughout the parking lot. I could see young men trucking in portable goals and holding 3 on 3 tournaments in protest of the lockout. I could see someone bringing out a boombox and jamming to John Tesh’s Roundball Rock. But alas, that takes too much time and money to protest like that, and NBA fans have to do something to pay for the season tickets and NBA League Pass that they have. Instead, NBA fans protested in a new manner. They took their protesting to Twitter. And you know what, it actually had an impact.

Twitter and the NBA is a match made in heaven. In all of the sport leagues, NBA players are the most accessible. They don’t wear helmets so it’s easy to see and recognize the players. They don’t have heavy armor on, so it’s easy for fans to try and dissect the meaning of their tattoos and get deeper into the psyche of that player. Because of this, NBA fans develop more of a connection, whether real or fantasized, with players than do the fans of other sports leagues. I love the Oklahoma Sooners football team, but I couldn’t pick their center, Ben Habern, out of a lineup if I tried. But I could recognize Minnesota’s back up center (Nikola Pekovic) in a crowded mall if I saw him.

Another thing that is instantly recognizable about the NBA and its players through Twitter, is that they are all friends. The basketball culture is completely different than the football culture and the baseball culture. Because these players have been playing together in AAU and cross country camps for the better part of their high school careers, there develops a strong common bond that unites these players together as they move on in their respective basketball journeys. And it becomes very apparent on Twitter, as players from different teams communicate with each other more often then they they probably do with their own mothers.

When you add the fact that fans can now actually communicate with your favorite players, that brings NBA fandom to another level. So, it was only a matter of time before NBA fans would take to Twitter to a) express their displeasure with the lockout or b) express their support to the players. Most players dismissed anything the fans said, but some players, Thunder center Nazr Mohammed, in particular, took to the Twitter-waves to quell any misunderstandings and explain to fans exactly what the players had given up and why they were fighting so hard. For a while, this actually worked in the players’ favor, as they were getting most of the public sentiment. But as the lockout dragged on, fans, and even some players, grew more and more frustrated, and took to the Twitter-waves to express that angst.

But not only were fans and players able to use Twitter to express their feelings, basketball sportswriters also became primetime commodities during the lockout, especially when there was a meeting between the two sides happening. What used to be interesting tidbits that would appear in books written 10 years after an event, became instant news once it happens (i.e. Dwayne Wade’s blow-up against David Stern, Stern going home with the flu, Michael Jordan going all Scarface on the players that adored him and playing “the bad guy”, the players’ “STAND” shirts, etc.). Howard Beck, David Aldridge, Marc Stein, Larry Coon, and Chris Sheridan all became my new best friends every time the two sides had one of their meetings. These sportswriters provided a riveting play by play of legal negotiations as they were happening. They gave the back drops to what was going on, like who stepped out and why they stepped out. I, for one, took it all in. I was entranced by these negotiations and found myself almost wanting the lockout to continue so that I could “hear” the play by play of the negotiations by the sportswriters. Plus it was fun to hear FalseHoop and his followers come up with #ReasonsForLongLockoutMeeting.

This all led to instant fan reaction. There was no need for sportswriters to put up surveys or take polls. The pulse of the fans was on full display, live and direct, with their tweets of displeasure and support. After each meeting that ended in disappointment, the pulse of the fans became more and more frustrated. Even worse for the NBA, some of the fans were becoming more and more apathetic. Don’t discount for a second the impact this had on Stern and the owners. With all the talk of a nuclear winter, the NBA did not want to turn into the NHL and have to play games on ION or SiTV when they came back a year or two later. Instead, they went back to the table, made a couple concessions, made the players feel better, and came to an agreement. And guess where I heard it first…….on Twitter.